Goal Two - Co-Create and Enhance Partnerships to Improve Health and Healthcare
Nursing students have always been in the community.
“We often talk about meeting people ‘where they are.' By showing up in places we haven’t before, we’re bringing that idea to life literally.”
Goal two champion Randy Jones, associate dean for partner development and engagement
But new efforts afoot are engaging them even more broadly beyond typical healthcare environments. Included in that work are partnerships with local schools where they hope to inspire youngsters to pursue healthcare careers, regular opportunities for faculty members to work as clinicians providing care at community events (like assistant professor Amy Boitnott (DNP ’11, pictured above at a summertime health clinic with a patient) who, with associate dean Randy Jones and associate professor Malinda Whitlow, regularly staffs community clinics in Fifeville and Southwood, two neighborhoods in Charlottesville), and modeling and mentoring students in those spaces, too.
“We often talk about meeting people ‘where they are,’” explained goal champion Jones, associate dean for partner development and engagement and the Jeanette Lancaster Alumni Professor of Nursing. “By showing up in places we haven’t before, we’re bringing that idea to life literally.”
Goal 1
Transform educational offerings to meet the changing needs of our students, the Commonwealth, and society
In response to new accreditation guidelines and student demands, how assistant professor Dawn Bourne (BSN ’04, MSN ’10, DNP ’16) and colleagues have winnowed the on-Grounds requirements for DNP students in Advanced Health Assessment by more than 50 percent while ensuring students still receive the intimate, hands-on opportunities and mentoring for which the School is known.
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Goal 3
Positioning the School as a leader in nursing science, from discovery to translation
The nursing faculty shortage is troubling. How goal champion Jeanne Alhusen, associate dean for nursing research, with her team in the Office for Nursing Research, is creating novel structures, supports, on-ramps, and opportunities for undergraduates, graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and emerging nurse scientists to more deeply engage with and commit to futures in nursing science. "There is no one path into nursing science," says Alhusen, but the "hope is that a spark followed by organized support and engagement keeps them on a research track."
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Goal 4
Cultivate trust and equity in all we do within our learning, research, and clinical environments
The work of goal four, says goal champion Melissa Gomes, associate dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion, provides the foundation upon which all other strategic progress is made. And now that the School's student body is "majority minority" for the first time in its history, there's never been a better time to build out programs, resources, structures, events, and curricular programming that intentionally infuses belonging into everything that's done.
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